HPE Channel Chief Richardson Adds US Distribution To His Responsibilities

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Channel Chief Terry Richardson has added U.S. distribution to his duties in the wake of an executive departure at the company.

Richardson, who was voted as what amounts to the most popular channel chief in the industry as the winner of CRN's 2017 Channel madness competition, is taking on the duties of HPE Vice President of U.S. Distribution Bob Johnson, who has left the company.

"It's a good move consolidating disty under Terry," said Frank Vitagliano, president and CEO of Computex Technology Solutions, No. 120 on the CRN SP 500. "Richardson is a channel pro. He gets all aspects of channel both solution providers and disty. He'll do an excellent job."

As vice president of U.S. channel sales for HPE, Richardson will now oversee the company's enterprise partner business across the country, as well as HPE's U.S. distribution business.

In an interview with CRN, Richardson said he sees the additional duties as an opportunity to "strengthen" the ties between partners and distributors.

"HPE is fully committed to two tier distribution," said Richardson. "Unlike some of our competitors, we are not trying to force some partners to go direct. My focus is on enhancing the relationships that we have between distributors and the resellers. We have two distinct parts of the business – transactional and complex solutions. I'll be working hard to make sure we improve both those go to market motions."

Richardson said he is moving aggressively with both partners and distributors to accelerate sales with next generation infrastructure including Synergy and Nimble.

The additional distribution responsibilities will also open the door to optimize partner coverage, said Richardson. "Coverage and execution is key," he said.

The change also is sure to increase the focus on driving small and medium business sales in the channel, said Richardson. "There is a lot of activity in SMB for us," he said. "It is a high growth, high performing segment for us. This gives us an opportunity to lean in and go even faster in SMB and SLED (State and Local Government and Education)."

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